The other day, I watched a video of a linguist talking about his motivation for learning multiple languages. The video wasn’t impressive, but it reminded me of my good old friend, Sherman, who is also a language enthusiast, and my roommate at UC Berkeley.
It brought up some memories. We used to chat before sleep. The lamp shed a faint light onto the wall and the bookshelf. Sherman once said that he would learn eight different languages. His list included French, English, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and one more but I can’t remember. My memory is no longer what it used to be. That, unfortunately, must be a sign of growing old.
I guess he made it finally. I wasn’t at Berkeley when he graduated. Though I can’t get the pleasure he has in learning new languages, I deeply value his passion for it. Enthusiasm is a vital ingredient in every human endeavor.